We are makers and participants of history and not its victims.
The Duma Nokwe Group of Advocates. Referral chambers in Sandton, founded in 2003 by advocates who built their own home at the Bar.
DUMA NOKWE GROUP | since 2003
Nobody gave us our chambers.
On Spring Day 2003, twenty-six advocates opened Fountain Chambers at Sandown Village in Sandton. Most had been at the Bar for less than five years. Nine were women. A few of them paid the deposit from their own pockets, three signed surety for the lease, and the seniors agreed to carry more of the costs so that the juniors could carry less.
They believed that a young black advocate needed more than admission. She needed a room she could afford, seniors down the passage, and work that would stretch her. They built that home themselves, and it has been taking in advocates ever since.
Every member practises independently, on brief from attorneys. What we share isthe founders’ bargain: those who are established make room for those who arestarting.
A home at the Bar.
Chambers where a new advocate can afford to begin. Senior members have carried the larger share of the costs since the day we opened.
Skills passed on.
Juniors work beside silks on substantial matters. Our founders called it the transfer of skills, and they arranged with attorneys and clients to make it happen.
The law within reach.
Our founders held that advocates are citizens, with obligations to those who cannot pay. Members act pro bono for people and communities who need counsel.
"Duma Nokwe was one of the giants of our struggle for freedom. We pay tribute to hiscontributions as a leader within the African National Congress, as an outstanding lawyer, and as an intellectual."
— Nelson Mandela, message read at the unveiling of the bust at our chambers, 5 December 2009
IN HIS NAME
The chambers he was denied.
In 1956 Duma Nokwe became the first African advocate admitted in the Transvaal. The Bar Council held that its constitution knew no colour bar. The State disagreed. The Minister of Native Affairs refused him a permit for chambers in town, and a handful of his own colleagues threatened to have him arrested if he took tea in the common room.
He practised anyway, from a room in His Majesty’s Building that George Bizos shared with him in defiance of the law. Before the year was out he had been arrested fortreason. He died in exile in Lusaka in 1978, aged fifty, and never had that cup of tea.
We carry his name so that the chambers he was denied are not denied to those whocome after him.
